Impact Lab – Page 334 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Robotics

Late last year, German Bionic announced a $20 million Series A round led — in part — by Samsung Catalyst Fund. It was a curious alliance, given that Samsung has shown off its own robotic exoskeleton technology. I took Samsung’s Gait Enhancing and Motivation System out for a spin a few CESes ago — and while it was limited in functionality, it worked well for walking assistance.

Of course, it’s never entirely clear just how seriously we’re meant to take Samsung’s robotic ambitions. Thus far, the company’s offerings seem largely for show. German Bionic, on the other hand, has been at this for a while. In fact, the company just announced the fifth generation of its robotics exoskeleton, Cray X — which, fittingly, will be on display at next year’s CES in a few short weeks (shudder).

The system is set to debut early next year, available as a hardware-as-a-service subscription model, with a starting price of $499 a month Put simply, you’re probably not going to rent one of these things to move furniture around the house.

Robots

Asylon Robotics Set to Unveil New Security Robotics Capabilities With DroneDog

December 18, 2021

The release event showcases next-generation hardware and software that enables the DroneDog security robot to conduct teleoperated patrols and response missions.

By Ryan Hodgens

Asylon, Inc., the only full-service American robotic perimeter security company, is set to demonstrate DroneDog live on December 15. During the demonstration, two guests will have complete control over the DroneDog — physically located in Norristown, Pennsylvania —without leaving their respective offices around the country.

Earlier this year, Asylon partnered with Boston Dynamics, creators of the Spot quadruped unmanned ground vehicle (Q-UGV), to create the DroneDog system. Boston Dynamics has focused on creating robots with advanced mobility for 30 years and their Spot robot has been purposefully designed to be a platform. The complete DroneDog system includes additional hardware and software components that are set to be unveiled during the event.

The hardware and software Asylon developed enable capabilities that include live video monitoring, teleoperation, 20x optical zoom, infrared (thermal) vision for nighttime operations, and automated charging for a set-and-forget system. And, while most ground robots run on wheels or tracks, DroneDog’s leg design allows it to travel over uneven and unpredictable terrain with organic, life-like motion. Organizations can even have multiple DroneDogs working in combination to employ an automated security task force to guard their locations 24/7.

Medical Breakthrough

Innovative silicon nanochip can reprogram biological tissue in living body

December 18, 2021

A silicon device that can change skin tissue into blood vessels and nerve cells has advanced from prototype to standardized fabrication, meaning it can now be made in a consistent, reproducible way. As reported in Nature Protocols, this work, developed by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, takes the device one step closer to potential use as a treatment for people with a variety of health concerns.

The technology, called tissue nanotransfection, is a non-invasive nanochip device that can reprogram tissue function by applying a harmless electric spark to deliver specific genes in a fraction of a second. In laboratory studies, the device successfully converted skin tissue into blood vessels to repair a badly injured leg. The technology is currently being used to reprogram tissue for different kinds of therapies, such as repairing brain damage caused by stroke or preventing and reversing nerve damage caused by diabetes.

Nanotechnology, Science & Technology News

Researchers Create a Camera the Size of a Salt Grain Using Neural Nano-Optics

December 17, 2021

By Michelle Horton

A team of researchers from Princeton and the University of Washington created a new camera that captures stunning images and measures in at only a half-millimeter—the size of a coarse grain of salt.

Optical metasurfaces rely on a new method of light manipulation, using cylindrical posts set on a small, square surface. The posts, which vary in geometry, work like antennas that can capture incoming photons (waves of electromagnetic radiation). These waves are then sent as signals from the metasurface to a computer to interpret and produce an image.

AI

US Scientists Develop Model Which Uses AI To Detect Future Diseases in Ageing Humans

December 17, 2021

This artificial intelligence model will assess the risk of digestive and respiratory diseases in the human body.

A new study has claimed that artificial intelligence will now be able to detect and predict future diseases. Scientists from the State University of New York, University of Buffalo, have developed a new model, which uses artificial intelligence to ascertain advanced information about serious diseases that occur with ageing. The new research has used the biological process to discover the diseases that occur in the human body.

The research has been published in the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics. In this model, metabolic and cardiovascular (arterial and cardiac) biomarkers will be used. Through the biological process of measuring it, the health status will be ascertained by estimating the cholesterol level, body mass index, glucose and blood pressure in the body.

Alternative Transportation, Science & Technology News

Bird-Shaped Flying Car Phractyl Macrobat Is a Bonkers, Idealistic Take on Air Mobility

December 17, 2021

eVTOLs haven’t “arrived” yet, despite earlier predictions that man will be enjoying personal flight no later than 2020. The latest estimates claim that UAMs (Urban Air Mobility solutions) will go into production within a decade, but it will still be another while before they go mainstream.

By Elena Gorgan

The upside to the extended wait is that it allows for more time to perfect battery technology which, in turn, will offer Phractyl the chance to finalize the design on the most bonkers and idealistic aircraft ever. As the “most genius”artist on the face of the planet would say (*Kanye West): OF ALL TIME.

This is Macrobat, an all-electric PAV (Personal Aerial Vehicle) like no other before. You could call it a flying-car birdoplane, and the people behind it, a team of researchers and designers from Africa, would probably appreciate it. Introduced in mid-November (hat tip to Interesting Engineering), it is now raising funds toward further developing the study and building a first functional prototype.

Phractyl, the name of the startup, stands for the PHRontier for Agile Complex Technology sYstem evoLution. Macrobat was named so because “bats are the only mammals that can fly, and the Macrobat facilitates the flight of another type of mammal (badum-tish),” as the description on the official website reads. As you can see, the people behind the project have a very healthy sense of humor, which probably helps when it comes to selling an idea as bonkers as this.

Driverless cars

Mercedes beats Tesla to hands-free driving on highways

December 16, 2021

Decision paves the way for the automaker to offer the Level 3 system globally

DAIMLER

Drive Pilot will be an option for the S-Class and EQS models from around the middle of next year.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz won regulatory approval to deploy a hands-free driving system in Germany ahead of Tesla, gaining an edge in the race to offer higher levels of automation in one of the world’s most competitive car markets.

The automaker got the go-ahead to sell its Drive Pilot package for use on stretches of the country’s Autobahn network at a speed of up to 60 kph (37 mph).

The system was approved for Level 3 autonomous driving, a notch higher than Tesla’s Level 2 Autopilot system, and will allow a drivers to take their hands off the wheel in slow-moving traffic.

Robots

Swiss delivery robot walks, drives, stands, but doesn’t fly (yet)

December 16, 2021

By Bruce Crumley

A major Swiss update of a previously developed robot has yielded a car, quadruped, humanoid delivery vehicle that may rival aerial drones in getting goods to destinations – apart from the flying trick, that is.

Initially trotted out as the ANYmal in 2018, the new, wheel-outfitted iteration was rolled out recently as the Swiss-Mile Robot, whose driving, climbing, and standing capacities make it a tough delivery vehicle competitor to autonomous cars and aerial drones. Those development improvements were the work of the Swiss Mile, which adopted the bot concept from creator ANYbotics. Named for the distance the machine can cover in an hour (13.8 miles), the upgraded Swiss Mile robot can operate for 90 minutes on a single charge, and reach transport speeds of up to 14 mph.

Children, Science & Technology News

India says nationwide birthrates drop below key ‘replacement rate’

December 16, 2021

Children play at a waterlogged street near a residential area after heavy monsoon rainfall in Chennai, India, on Nov. 12.

By Gerry Shih

India’s population growth is losing steam as the average number of children born crossed below a key threshold, according to newly released data from a government survey.

India’s most recent National Family Health Survey, which is conducted every five years by the Health Ministry, was released Wednesday and showed the total fertility rate (TFR) across India dropping to 2.0 in 2019-2021, compared with 2.2 in 2015-2016. A country with a TFR of 2.1, known as the replacement rate, would maintain a stable population over time; a lower TFR means the population would decrease in the absence of other factors, such as immigration.

The figures were hailed as a heartening signal by government officials and researchers in a country that is expected to overtake China to become the world’s most populous sometime this decade. Since the mid-20th century, Indian leaders have tried to curb high birthrates, which are often reversely correlated with women’s welfare metrics and economic progress. A burgeoning population is seen, in the longer term, as a hurdle to development and a driver of environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Futurati Podccast with Radhika Iyengar-Emens

December 15, 2021

Watch on Youtube

Listen on the Futurati Podcast website
Radhika Iyengar-Emens is a founding partner at StarChain Ventures, a venture studio focused on the disruptive potential of blockchain technology in combination with AI, ML, and IoT, as well as a noted expert on applications of the blockchain.

Related

Robots

AES launches ‘first-of-its-kind’, AI-driven solar installation robot

December 15, 2021

The robot will aid in construction by performing the lifting, placing and attachment of solar panels. Image: AES promotional video

By Sean Rai-Roche

Energy technology company AES has launched an artificially intelligent (AI) robot to support the construction of new solar projects.

The company said the “first-of-its-kind” machine will make it faster, more efficient and safer to construct new solar facilities.

The product of a multi-year innovation process, the robot, dubbed Atlas, was designed by AES and built in cooperation with Calvary Robotics as well as other third parties at Calvary’s New York headquarters.

AES teams will use Atlas as a tool in the construction of new solar projects. Atlas will support AES’ workforce by performing the heavy lifting, placing and attachment of solar modules, while adding new high-tech jobs, AES said.

“The… Atlas robot automates the construction of new solar resources, enabling a safer work environment, shorter project timelines and lower overall energy costs,” said Chris Shelton, AES senior vice president and chief product officer.

drones

Electric Sky developing beam to remotely power drone flights

December 15, 2021

By Bruce Crumley

Innovating startup Electric Sky is working on an energy transmitter to beam power to both single and swarms of drones in flight, and has now been backed by a grant from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Electric Sky, which has offices in Seattle and Midland, Texas, received $225,000 in funding from DARPA to develop its remote concept to power airborne drones. Over the six-month phase the grant covers, Electric Sky will focus primarily on adapting the system for use with swarms of UAVs at relatively short distances. Continuing work will then seek to expand those to longer-range, single-, and multi-craft operation.

That sequential road map may seem logical in creating most emerging technologies, but it seems to run counter to Electric Sky’s patent application, and executives’ description of the platform.

Other methods already being developed to power drones with remote, wireless tech – usually with lasers or microwaves – tend to get weaker the farther they travel from their source. By contrast, Electric Sky says its Whisper Beam innovation actually intensifies when it reaches its UAV target.